Indonesia-based power company, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PT PLN) has received bids from five multinational companies for its Java-Sumatra interconnection project. These include Germany-based Siemens, Japan-based Hitachi and Toshiba, a consortium of Swedish ABB and Japanese Marubeni, and a consortium of French Alstom and Indonesian construction company PT Wijaya Karya. PT PLN is planning to set up a 500 kV project to connect the two islands of Sumatra and Java. The 700 km line (of which 50 km will be undersea) with a capacity of 3,000 MW will run from the Mine Mouth coal power plant in Musirawas and Bangko in Sumatra to the Java grid. The project entails an investment of over $2 billion, out of which $400 million has been provided by Japan International Corporation Agency, while $300 million would be provided by the government.
